


You Don't Have to Love Me Yet

by WrongRemedy



Category: Professional Wrestling, World Wrestling Entertainment
Genre: (At least through the Raw after WM 34), Bray Needs a Hug, Kayfabe Compliant, M/M, Woken Bray
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-10
Updated: 2018-04-10
Packaged: 2019-04-21 01:45:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,723
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14274240
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WrongRemedy/pseuds/WrongRemedy
Summary: "The idea that this might not be the same Bray he used to know should be reassuring, Xavier thinks, surely. He should feel some kind of triumph - or at the very least some relief - at the thought that the person who made a game out of pulling the rug out from under him and breaking open his mind like a toy box for months on end has been transformed into someone else."Xavier watches Bray's "deletion" and is unsettled to realize that he's actually worried about Bray. Then he gets sent to Raw.





	You Don't Have to Love Me Yet

**Author's Note:**

> I'm gonna be straight up honest, this began as a way for me to work through some of my own thoughts and feelings regarding Woken Bray through an Xavier-shaped lens, and turned into something totally different because I apparently can't keep from trying to get closure on that old Wyatt Family/New Day storyline in every single fic I write. 
> 
> For Sam (@braywashed on tumblr) as always, because without her pioneering spirit and shipping goggles there would be no Bravier "fandom". 
> 
> Title from 'Magic Man' by Heart which is 100% a song about the Bray Wyatt character even if it was written many years before that character was conceived, and which Sam sent to me in a very inspiring move while I was writing this. 
> 
> Please forgive any spelling or grammar mistakes, all of my work is unbeta'd and I wrote this one in particular between 2 and 4 in the morning.

**(1)**

Half the Smackdown roster watches the Ultimate Deletion match together in a hotel room, some of them already lamenting how sad it’ll be to see Bray decimate Matt in front of his family, most of them wondering what’s going to happen to Bray after Matt “deletes” him. Bray gets thrown in the Lake of Reincarnation, and an unsure silence settles over the room for a few long moments.

“Let’s...not...bring this up within hearing distance of Harper and Rowan, am I right y’all?” E asks, effectively breaking the awkward moment as he has a particular talent for doing.

Everyone murmurs their agreement and files out to their own separate rooms, reflecting in their own ways on what they just saw or already putting it out of their minds to focus on their own schedule for tomorrow. Xavier mulls over the image of Matt pushing Bray off the bank as he tries to fall asleep, and can’t seem to keep his mind from racing trying to guess what might be happening to Bray somewhere under the surface of the water.

**(2)**

The next few weeks are a trial. Between the Usos and the Bludgeon Brothers, it feels like The New Day can’t catch a break that doesn’t involve broken bones, and Xavier in particular feels like he’s being targeted without really knowing why. It occurs to him probably too often to wonder if Harper and Rowan are remembering what happened the first time they all faced off, and if, even after seemingly getting away from Bray, the mystery of what’s going on with him now may be driving them to be even more brutal than usual. It also occurs to him to wonder if, maybe, he should be concerned by how concerned he seems to be with Bray Wyatt’s well-being; especially when his old cronies are literally trying to end his career, if not his life, every single week.

**(3)**

Bray comes back at Wrestlemania, and everyone backstage promptly flips their shit. There’s a general air of confusion, everyone discussing how he looks the same but is acting so different, making only half-joking comments about making sure they stay on Matt’s good side if the result of pissing him off is coming back some kind of a shell of your former self. The chatter washes over Xavier as he stares at the monitors, but almost none of it registers. He can’t stop looking at Bray’s eyes in the camera shots, noticing how far away they look, how they seem so much more dim than he remembers them being back when it used to feel like Bray could gaze all the way into his soul without hardly even trying.

The idea that this might not be the same Bray he used to know should be reassuring, Xavier thinks, surely. He should feel some kind of triumph - or at the very least some relief - at the thought that the person who made a game out of pulling the rug out from under him and breaking open his mind like a toy box for months on end has been transformed into someone else.

But something about it seems, well, sad; and by the time the last of the monitors has stopped showing any sign of Bray, Xavier is more unsettled by this new personality of Bray’s than by the fact that he’s going to have to watch Kofi and E face the Bludgeon Brothers later on in the evening. He wonders if Bray will watch the match, or if he’s forgotten that he would have ever had any reason to want to watch it anyway.

**(4)**

Xavier can’t even bring himself to watch the Raw after Wrestlemania. He’s so tired after days worth of press and workouts and taking yet another beating that he just tells Kofi and E he’s going to lay down and to be ready to tell him the highlights when it’s over. He spends three hours staring at the ceiling in the dark, and when the others join him to run him through what he missed, he startles at how violently his heart leaps into his throat when they start talking about Matt and Bray.

“You should have seen it, man,” Kofi says excitedly, “Wyatt was like, a whole new person! Like, still as ugly as ever, y’know what I’m sayin?” He and E nudge each other and laugh at that, and Xavier wonders why neither of them seem to notice the scowl that inexplicably brings to his face.

“But anyway,” Kofi continues, “it really is crazy, man. He’s like Matt’s puppet now. All that ‘delete’ stuff and everything. I don’t know what they got in the water down there in North Carolina, but it did a number on him for sure.”

Xavier only half-listens as they explain the rest of the show. Later, hours after he should be asleep, he pulls up the video on his phone and watches Matt and Bray’s match. Even with the volume off, just the visual of Bray kneeling in front of Matt is enough to make his stomach turn uncomfortable flips, and he shuts the app down more violently than is probably necessary, though for the life of him he can’t figure out why he’s so bothered by any of it.

**(5)**

The unthinkable happens at the Superstar Shakeup.

Tom Phillips’ voice rings out across the airwaves, to every headset in the back and every television screen in the WWE universe: “Xavier Woods is on his way to Monday Night Raw, and the rest of the New Day is staying here on Smackdown Live!”

Xavier feels like he’s not quite in his own body anymore. Some part of him registers Kofi and E on either side of him, a hand each on his shoulders, voices in both ears talking about friendship and brotherhood and cross-brand solidarity, but mostly it feels like he’s floating - like nothing around him is real. He says goodbye to everyone on autopilot after the show, muttering about seeing them at co-branded pay per views and UpUpDownDown tournaments without really hearing himself at all.

His dreams that night are full of an echoing voice that he’d thought he’d put behind himself years ago, saying something that he’d wanted to deny at the time, something that he and one other person had always known was bound to come true, even if it took until now for it to happen.

_New Day falls. New Day falls._

**(6)**

His first day as a new member of the Raw roster is two days later at a house show, and even without all the lights-camera-action of a tv day, and with several other new-old faces showing up in the locker room from Smackdown, Xavier still feels like there are too many eyes on him from the second he gets to the arena a few hours before the show. He feels itchy all over and too trapped in his own skin, and every attempt anyone makes at trying to talk to him feels intrusive, so he wanders deeper into the less-populated areas of the arena to try and find some space to himself for a while and get away from it all. He’s just found what he thinks will be the perfect back corner of a semi-dark, dead-end hallway when he realizes that somebody else must have already had the same idea as him.

His blood turns to ice water in his veins when he recognizes the shape he’s approaching as Bray, sitting on the floor with his back against the wall, staring at the blank grey brick on the other side with no real expression on his face. Bray doesn’t even so much as glance sideways when Xavier comes close. If it weren’t for the dullness behind his eyes, it would look like he was deep in thought, but something feels off, and somehow it’s even more worrying than encountering Bray as his old self would have been.

Xavier knows he should just walk away and find somewhere else to wait until the show starts. In fact, he should run away, after everything Bray did to him. But the longer he stands there looking at Bray looking at nothing, the more he realizes they’re in the same boat at the moment: alone on Raw and forced to be someone different while the people they used to consider family are on Smackdown carrying on without them. Hiding in dark hallways to escape the voices of everyone else wanting to act so normal all the time.

_We’re the same, me and you, Woods_ , he remembers Bray telling him once. Xavier told him he was wrong then - denied it with every fiber of his being. Now he wonders if maybe Bray was just seeing the future. He walks closer, until he’s standing right in front of Bray, looking down at him.

“Are...are you okay?”

Xavier asks, and immediately feels stupid beyond all belief. Of course Bray isn’t okay. He essentially had his life force removed by some kind of magic water, and now he’s wandering around like a robot programmed by Matt Hardy.

Bray looks up slowly, like he really is only noticing Xavier’s presence for the first time now that he’s spoken, and even when his gaze lands on Xavier’s face, his expression remains blank for several seconds longer before a slow, forced-looking smile breaks out.

“Me?” Bray asks, as if there’s anyone else in the hallway. “I’m wonderful.”

Xavier suddenly wants to throw a punch. ‘Wonderful’. Matt’s word.

He remembers Bray having so many words, a seemingly endless well of words and a talent for weaving mere syllables into something transcendent. It had overwhelmed Xavier when it was turned on him, that ability of Bray’s to use vocabulary like voodoo and take someone anywhere he wanted them to go just by talking. And now he’s saying he’s ‘wonderful’, like a broken record repeating the last line scratched into it.

There’s something infuriating about it all. Xavier drops to his knees on the floor.

“Bray,” he asks frantically, not even sure what the urgency he’s feeling is or where it’s coming from. It just feels so important all of a sudden that he gets through to Bray somehow, that he makes sure he isn’t all gone. “Bray, do you remember me? Do you know who I am?”

Bray blinks at him, and tips his head to the side curiously. It feels like Bray’s trying to look at him through a smudged lens, like he can’t quite get a clear image of what he’s seeing. Xavier doesn’t know why it feels so imperative that Bray knows.

“Woods,” Bray says, finally. Something about the word sounds like it was ripped out of Bray’s throat, like he had to drag it forward from somewhere deep and dark. Xavier nods encouragingly, even as part of his brain screams that he should be terrified that Bray still recognizes him.

“Xavier Woods, that’s right,” he says, like talking to a kid who’s just learning to read. He swears he sees something light in Bray’s eyes, if only for a second.

“Do you remember the last time we saw each other, before this?” Xavier asks, almost dreading whatever answer he’s going to get.

“Royal Rumble,” Bray says after a long pause. He sounds uncertain, until Xavier nods again. The ghost of a smile flits over Bray’s face. “You came right for me,” he says, and Xavier finds himself breathing out a disbelieving laugh, despite the fact that nothing about the situation should be funny.

“Can you blame me?” Xavier shoots back before remembering that Bray might not have any idea anymore of why Xavier would have been inclined to attack him. To his surprise, though, that seems to wake Bray up even more. He still looks confused - a crease between his eyebrows like he’s trying hard to remember - but his eyes are clearer than they’ve looked in weeks, and he sits up a little straighter against the wall. Xavier’s heartbeat picks up.

“I hurt you, didn’t I?” Bray asks, no longer looking at Xavier, eyes cast down like the thought is an unpleasant one.

“Physically?” Xavier responds, “No more or less than anyone else who’s taken the notion. Mentally…” He trails off, and Bray’s eyes raise back to look at him again. Xavier isn’t even sure where he would take the rest of that sentence if he tried, but he does seem to finally be getting through to Bray, so he switches tracks.

“I don’t want to upset you here, but, Bray...what happened to you in that lake? Matt keeps saying he got rid of Sister Abigail. Is she still with you? I mean, I don’t know that anyone was ever sure how much of you was you and how much was her, but. God, I’m probably not even making any sense. I don’t even know why I’m asking you any of this, why should I care, why should I even--” Xavier’s voice cuts off abruptly when Bray reaches out and puts a hand on his shoulder. For a minute it feels like Xavier can’t breathe. For the first time since he came across Bray sitting in the hallway, he starts to worry that he may be in danger. But Bray doesn’t seem ready to threaten him. In fact, when he starts to speak, it’s almost like he forgets Xavier’s there at all - he sounds more like he’s talking to himself.

“When I fell into the lake, it was like...everything just closed in around me. I could hear Abigail in my mind, screaming.” Bray’s voice breaks, and his grip on Xavier’s shoulder tightens. He sounds agonized when he continues, but, Xavier notes with what feels strangely like hope, he also sounds less and less confused. “He tried to drown her, Woods. He thought he was saving me by getting rid of her. He doesn’t understand she already saved me by choosing me in the first place.”

“But did it work?” Xavier asks, almost frightened by what look like unshed tears in Bray’s eyes. “Is she gone?”

Bray looks down again, seemingly concentrating hard on something. His jaw clenches, and his hand slips down Xavier’s arm until he takes him by the hand. Xavier startles at the touch, but Bray clearly doesn’t even realize what he’s done, he still looks like he’s trying to work out a difficult math problem. Xavier doesn’t move his hand away. Finally, Bray looks back at him, more familiar than Xavier ever thought he’d look again.

“She’s here,” Bray says, half growl, half whisper. Xavier shudders. Once upon a time those exact words were cause for nothing but fear, but after the last few weeks, he finds himself feeling nothing but relief at hearing them again. He notices that Bray is still holding his hand.

“You knew we’d end up here,” Xavier says quietly. “That’s what you kept trying to tell me, way back when. ‘New Day falls’. We thought we’d proved you wrong when we stayed together. But you didn’t mean then. You meant now, didn’t you?”

Bray licks his lips. Nods, slowly. He leans forward and takes hold of Xavier’s other hand.

“You brought her back to me, Woods. Matt managed to lock her up inside my head for a while, but you let her back out; you helped me find her again. She told me then you were special - that you’d be important to us someday. She was right. I was right. The devil calls for you, remember?”

Xavier looks into Bray’s eyes, and everything slots into place. All this time he’d spent thinking Bray had been wrong in his predictions, only to wind up here. He remembers something else Bray said; something that felt so wrong at the time, but now, looking back, he can recognize it for how right it truly was.

“I belonged to you already,” he says, and Bray’s smile isn’t slow to bloom this time.

“Matt Hardy can’t beat the both of us, Woods,” Bray says, confident. Xavier knows bone-deep that he’s as right about that as he has been about everything. In a moment of impulse that he would never have considered less than an hour ago but that somehow feels like years in the making, Xavier presses his answer against Bray’s mouth, sure of its truth.

“Nobody can.”

**Author's Note:**

> Find me talking about wrestling on tumblr @unprofessionalwrestling  
> Find me talking about random fandoms and personal things @somethingsoinviting


End file.
